Massive attack on Bitcoin

A «massive and concerted attack» has been launched by a bot system on numerous Bitcoin exchanges. Andreas Antonopoulos, the chief security officer of Blockchain.info, told portal CoinDesk details of attack.

DDoS attack is taking Bitcoin’s transaction malleability problem and applying it to many transactions in the network, simultaneously.

«So as transactions are being created, malformed/parallel transactions are also being created so as to create a fog of confusion over the entire network, which then affects almost every single implementation out there».

According to Antonopoulos, Blockchain.info’s implementation is not affected, but some exchanges have been affected – their internal accounting systems are gradually going out of sync with the network. But that this isn’t affecting withdrawals, because most exchanges are not processing them automatically.

«It’s important to note no funds have been lost. Withdrawals have been halted to prevent funds from being lost or to prevent the balances from going out of sync».

Antonopoulos was keen to stress that, although this is a serious attack, it doesn’t spell the end of Bitcoin.

«I expect things will go back to normal and the honey badger of money can continue showing its resilience. The death of Bitcoin has been prematurely announced so many times already that the obvious conclusion is that Bitcoin is far more resilient than its critics would like to think».

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